US benchmark equity indexes ended higher Thursday as Treasury yields advanced with the 10-year up 2.2 basis points to 4.6% and the two-year rate 1.6 basis points higher at 4.3%.

* Initial unemployment claims for the week ending Dec. 28 declined to 211,000 from 220,000 a week earlier, the Department of Labor said Thursday. The four-week moving average dropped by 3,500 to 223,250, ending a string of four straight gains.

* The US manufacturing sector remained weak in December with output and new orders declining, according to a survey by S&P Global (SPGI). The firm's manufacturing purchasing managers' index fell to 49.4 in December from 49.7 in November.

* February West Texas Intermediate crude oil closed higher $1.40 to settle at $73.12 per barrel, while March Brent crude, the global benchmark, was last seen up $1.25 to $75.89.

* Hesai (HSAI) was up 17% after the manufacturer of light detection and ranging solutions continued to benefit from Monday's announcement that it delivered over 100,000 lidar units in December. The company's deliveries for the robotics market during the month exceeded 20,000 units.

* SoFi Technologies (SOFI) shares were down 8.2% after Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded the stock to underperform from market perform and raised the price target on the stock to $8 from $7.